Bad Dreams, huh?
by Jaffa Snakes
Summary: Poor, tired, tormented Elissa has a stress-dream first night at camp Post-Lothering, but it's not all bad.


**_**_**Disclaimer: Any characters, locations and most lines of dialogue - although there aren't many ;) - belong to Bioware/David Gaider. Thanks Bioware & Gaider (especially for Alistair - you are very kind people)! :)

_**Author's Note:**_ _OK so I've written quite a bit of Dragon Age fanfic but I haven't published any for two reasons - one because I read a hella lotta the stuff and there's so much brilliance out there when it comes to DA fanfic and fanart that I get a little nervous about it. Secondly because I have a tendency to waffle in my writing. I write many, many chapters and overwhelm myself with the size. So I wrote this naughty little story hoping it would help me cull my need to write huge tomes the size of War & Peace (that inevitably never get read by anyone other than me, heheh). I've never managed to write a whole sex scene before (eek) but I figured that since I enjoy reading so many stories on here, hopefully someone out there would enjoy reading this._

_Oh and a quick apology. My use of punctuation marks leaves a lot to be desired. I just can't get enough of those commas! I read about as fast as I talk, (see that's a comma right there!) so long connecting sentences tends to be my "thing". I found it worked quite well in the context of writing a surreal dream sequence where things are not what they seem but please feel free to critique if you find it hard to read. Constructive criticism can only help after all! :) Thanks for reading and enjoy!_

_**Summary:**Elissa has a stress-dream the first night at camp Post-Lothering, although she's not complaining about it. Alistair/F!Cousland. M rated._

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The air was crisp and purple as I and my companions left Lothering on the road to Redcliffe. The metaphorical road, that is. We were taking a short cut through the woods. I was leading the way, my feet knowing which way to turn even though my head did not.

Leliana was singing softly behind me, a sweet melody which would ward off the darkspawn but even still I did not feel comforted. I could sense eyes on me, thousands of eyes, and hear rustling movements from beyond the tree line. The tree line, I realised in a sudden but brief moment of lucidity, was ever existent, as if the trees were opening a path for us as we moved.

"Warden," Morrigan's voice was quiet and I was surprised when I turned to see the witch right behind me. Her voice echoed and faded into the dusky night. "I wonder if there might not be an easier path?"

_I thought we agreed._ _This is the best way._

"Is it?" As Morrigan questioned me with one brow raised, I noticed movement over her shoulder. Alistair and Sten were unsheathing their swords. Leliana, though still singing, had readied her bow. My mabari hound was growling, teeth bared and he ran past me fluidly and slowly as if underwater. The scenery moved with him and I found myself turned around and facing a sea of giant spiders. Their fangs were long and dripping poisonous venom. I reached for my weapons but found I had none. I was unarmed.

_Foolish girl!_

I had dressed for Redcliffe, and was in noblewoman's attire, a silky red dress that would do nothing to protect me.

_Why didn't I wear armour?_

I should have been prepared for battle, walking through the deep woods.

My companions raced ahead of me and attacked but the spiders swarmed over them, under them. Leliana was carried away, surfing on a tide of clicking legs and beady eyes. Morrigan was gone, trampled into the earth. Sten and the dog tried and failed to provide a wall. They were lost in a fog of green venom. Alistair roared from my side as he swiped at any creature that tried to get through. I hid behind him, kicking out at snapping pincers but he couldn't defend me from the overwhelming torrent of them and I certainly couldn't defend myself. I saw Alistair fall and a split second later felt a sharp stinging pain in my gut. I looked down, my vision swimming, to find I had been pierced straight through by one of their huge, black, hairy legs and then they were on me, crashing me to the ground.

The hideous hissing was suffocating. I screamed painfully loud. I squeezed my eyes shut. Every muscle was tense and prepared for my imminent demise but it didn't come.

I blinked.

Daylight.

Dawn perhaps?

The spiders were gone.

The pain was excruciating. I sobbed and clutched my gut. Lifting my hands I saw that they were covered in blood. My own blood.

"Pass me my pack."

Alistair's voice.

I lifted my head. He was kneeling by my feet. Morrigan handed him his pack, her hand trailing up his arm as he rustled through the bag. She held my eye contact.

"You are injured," Alistair stated. My gaze drifted away from the beautiful witch and to him. He frowned down at me, his eyes shadowed by his brow, serious and concerned.

"It hurts," I said. And it did. The pain emanating from my middle was throbbing, all-consuming and I couldn't remember being without it. It held me together, sewed into every pore.

"I know," Alistair said. "I was injured too. But I have bandages. I can heal you."

I nodded. _Please._

I watched his eyes watch me. He slowly scrutinized my vulnerable body and finally rested on my midriff. Under his gaze, the pain throbbed but there was the promise of relief too.

Morrigan's hand trailed off of Alistair's shoulder. The witch was retreating and I had a moment of mild panic.

_Where are you going?_

"You don't need me for this," Morrigan stated and then she was gone.

I became aware of the ground below me, damp and cool. Blades of grass rose high all around me, imprisoning me but it was comforting. A gentle breeze tickled over them and over my hair.

With severity, Alistair had a dagger now and he was studying it, tracing a finger over its sharp edge. He locked his eyes with mine and I held my breath, preparing, as he leaned forward and bunched the hem of my flimsy dress in his fist. He sliced through the fabric with ease, then placed the dagger carefully on the ground before tearing the dress from bottom to top in one continuous rip.

I had been expecting the air on my naked body to chill me but it was quite warming in fact.

The reality of being fully naked registered suddenly with an intense humiliation. My hands flew up to shield my eyes from my own immodesty.

Another set of hands grasped my wrists, stopping me in my tracks. Strong hands.

"I'll still be able to see you," Alistair said, his confusion apparent. "The fresh air is good for you."

His hands released my wrists and let them fall to the ground beside my head. He turned his attentions to the wound cutting deep into me. Warm, wet, amber cloth was dabbed against my stomach leaving soothing tingles in its wake. Soon his hands were there instead gently rubbing the oily residue into my skin. The throbbing centre of the pain was crying out for his administrations and he sensed it. In no hurry, he pressed his hands, one atop the other, gently against the cut and held them there. The sensation of skin knitting back together was a ticklish one and I squirmed and giggled and he grinned down at me.

"If you keep fidgeting, I'm going to have to get help," he chastised.

"No!" I cried. I definitely didn't want _that_.

"OK, well hold still then, we're nearly done here."

_We are? _I still ached awfully but not where I had been injured. It was everywhere else. Everywhere that hadn't been treated by the poultice or his hands but before I could question him, he had lowered his head and pressed his tongue flat against my ribs.

"Oh!" I exclaimed.

He kissed and licked my torso patiently, in long sweeping strokes, taking his time. His fingers danced up my sides and I felt guilty that it felt so good. He was only innocently trying to help.

"Elissa!" Leliana's voice rang out over the clearing.

I turned my head to the side. Through the blades of grass which sliced into the view, I could see that the others had made camp. There was a fire burning and a cooking pot set above it.

They were far enough away that I couldn't make out their faces, but Leliana stood on tiptoes, her hand shielding her eyes against the sun as she strained to see us.

"Will you two be joining us for supper?"

Alistair's hands, meanwhile, had sought out my breasts. Fingers and thumbs were softly running over the soft flesh and hard nipples.

"Oh, yes," my voice was throaty, barely more than a husky whisper, but the words carried out over the vast clearing well enough. "We will be with you shortly."

His breath tickled my neck. I could sense the weight of him hovering just above me.

"We can hardly leave without you!" Leliana replied.

Lips pressed against the underside of my jaw and drew enticingly up to my earlobe where his tongue flicked against it. Sparks exploded all through me and left aftershocks tingling across my skin.

The wind blew the grass and it momentarily obscured my vision. When it cleared, the two women, the man and the dog were sat in a circle all eating contentedly.

I turned my head back so I was facing the clear blue sky as Alistair drew back, looking down at me.

His face was ruddy, his lips moist and slightly parted and his eyes, usually light and playful, were dark and intense.

Braced on one hand that rested by my shoulder, he reached his other up and buried it in my hair. I responded, only with a slight hesitation that left as soon as it had arrived. I bit my bottom lip and reached up to shift his shirt off his shoulders. It slid off with ease and then, without any movement at all, he was as naked as I.

He crooked a smile, his apprehension clear, before lowering his head and pressing his lips to mine. Soft and sweet and wonderfully warm, I instantly melted with pure desire and mewled needfully into his mouth. My arms snaked around his broad back and crushed him to me. Arms and legs wrapped around each other.

_They can see you. They can all see you, you fool! They are only sitting across the clearing._

The grass that surrounded us seemed to thicken and grow higher like a wall giving us some semblance of privacy.

And that was enough privacy to placate me, for he had consumed me. My concern for my modesty was a distant second priority to my _need._

His hardness pressed against my sex and, when it did, I gasped. His amber eyes held mine. His desire was as real as my own. I couldn't tell where I ended and he began. I was utterly lost in him.

When he entered me, stretched and filled me, I felt it in every molecule of my being and so did he. He moved slowly within me with strong fluid thrusts. Who was above and who was beneath, I didn't know and it was inconsequential. We danced together as one. There was no _him_ and _her_, there was only _us_.

We kissed once more but it was chaotic now, where before it had been languid and exploratory. He breathed my name and I breathed his and somewhere amidst our lips and tongues the words met and mingled.

_The darkspawn are close. They hiss and growl from beyond the tree line. They circle and close in. It won't be much longer before they are upon us. But we have time. Please just a little more-_

He plunged deeper into me and I urged him on, matching his movements with my own. My head threw back and I cried out in pleasure. His dropped, his forehead against my collarbone and he was panting hard now, every ragged exhalation asking a question that I answered with my rising moans. Every noise was perfectly in sync with the accelerating tempo of our thrusts.

There was a great roar from across the clearing. The dog growled. A woman shrieked.

_The archdemon! It's here. The horde have led it to us!_

I grabbed the back of Alistair's head and held it to my breast tightly afraid that he would leave.

_Not now. Not now._

Waves of pleasure undulated through me and everything other than him faded away into the ether. I grasped him fiercely and desperately pushed myself against him again and again and again.

We came together in a blinding white light of passion, my screams and his groans and, in the aftermath, I clung to him so tightly as he kissed me and claimed me-

Elissa awoke with a start. Flushed and warm, she was instantly greeted by the man who had caused her to be in such a state. His eyes shadowed by a concerned frown and it was so reminiscent of...

"It's OK, it's OK I'm here."

The fractured remnants of her dream, the memory of _him_ was still fresh and all too real and Elissa looked down, away from him. She couldn't meet his eyes for fear that he would _know_ somehow.

"You called out for me," he explained, crouching next to her bedroll. "In your sleep."

She squeezed her eyes shut so tight it almost hurt. It didn't hurt enough to ward off the embarrassment.

"Bad dreams, huh?" His voice was so genuinely naïve, she dared to peek one eye open again.

"It seemed so real," she mumbled.

"Well it is real, sort of." He said matter-of-factly, managing to cause her to have a slight panic attack before she realised he truly had no clue what her dream had been of.

He settled to sit beside her, resting one arm on on his raised knee.

"You see, part of being a Grey Warden is being able to hear the Darkspawn. That's what your dream was. Hearing them."

_Huh? We can __**hear**__ the darkspawn?_

"The Archdemon it…**talks** to the horde, and we feel it just as they do. That's how we know this is really a blight."

If the Archdemon really **had** been there, trying to get her attention in her sleep, she was wholly glad that her dream-self had been...otherwise occupied.

She breathed shakily.

"Are...are these dreams going to happen a lot?" she asked nervously.

"It takes a bit, but eventually you can block the dreams out. Some of the older Grey Wardens say they can understand the Archdemon a bit, but I sure can't. Anyhow, when I heard you thrashing around, I thought I should tell you." _Wait, what? I was __**thrashing about?**_ "It was scary at first for me, too."

Well...scary wasn't the word she would have chosen... She dared to look up at his eyes, hoping that her mortification at the whole situation wasn't too apparent, and smiled self-consciously.

"Thank you Alistair, I appreciate it."

He smiled back, a wide genuine grin, seemingly pleased that he had helped and a ripple of lingering desire echoed through her.

"That's what I'm here for. To deliver unpleasant news and witty one-liners."

He stood and patted her shoulder as he did so.

"Anyhow, you're up now, right? Let's pull up camp and get a move on."

_Yes,_ she thought as she watched him walk away, only averting her gaze (with a blush) when she spotted Leliana smirking at her knowingly. _No time for such distractions. There was so much to do._


End file.
